Producing weight precise slices or portions from an elastic strand material is rather simple when the strand material has an identical cross section over its entire length and it is made from a homogenous material that can be cut everywhere with the same ease, like e.g. sausage or cheese.
For this purpose so called slicers are known which cut off a respective slice with a typically circular or spiral shaped rotating blade which can be moved back and forth respectively transversal to the strand, whereas the typically exposed strand is moved forward continuously.
A meat strand e.g. roast beef however does not have these properties since each piece has a different configuration and additionally a cross section that changes over time and the meat strand includes material with different consistency hardness and elasticity for example fat portions, the muscle strand, the enveloping fascia and, optionally, also bones like in a pork chop which have quite different physical and mechanical properties.
In this context it is already known to shape a salmon initially so that it has a defined, known cross section at least at an end where the next slice is being cut off advantageously over an entire length, at least at a point in time when the slice is cut off. Then a relationship between the adjustable thickness of the slice and the weight of the slice can be established though not 100% since a consistency of the meat can change from one slice to another wherein the components of the meat have different specific weights.
In order to achieve this deformation the typically slightly frozen salmon is initially inserted into a form tube and pressed in the axial direction by a longitudinal press plunger against a stop so that a cross section of the salmon adjusts to fill an entire inner space of the form tube.
Thus form tubes with different cross sections can be used depending on the dimension of the salmon and a cross section of the form tube can be adjusted additionally after the salmon is inserted, for example in that two opposite side walls of the form tube are moved towards each other which also causes a transversal compression of the salmon which acts gently upon the structure of the fish.
In cutting machines of this type the salmon can only be inserted into the form tube after the longitudinal press plunger or the transversal press plunger were removed from the form rube and a loading opening, typically a rear opening of the form tube is freely accessible.
This causes rather long idle times between the cutting phases and has required hand loading to this date.
In order to integrate a cutting machine of this type into a processing line, typically including a froster, one or plural cutting machines operating in parallel, a scale, a portioning/insertion device for inserting the portions/slices into a container and optionally a sealing machine for tight sealing of the container. It is disadvantageous that an employee for loading one to three cutting machines is required for this purpose, or a high level of automation is required in order not to need this employee.
Additionally meat strands have to be individually handleable when placing into the individual form tubes, since cutlets have to be able to cut after removing the quality cut off.
On the other hand, minute steaks can be cut from a pork back after removing the quality cuts, and the residual pieces resulting from slicing red meat can be used for roast beef.